Thursday Editorial: Finally, some action on septic tanks

Government in Jacksonville before consolidation was marked by corruption and passing the buck.

Combining city and county governments almost 50 years ago led to an era of progressive reform and the accurate phrase, “Bold New City of the South.”

But no form of government is perfect. With the benefit of hindsight we can look back and see two major issues that remain unresolved.

The first involves the large number of ugly overhead power lines that result in frequent power outages.

Jacksonville had been hit by Hurricane Dora in 1964, so the residents had to be thinking of the impact of such storms when they went to the polls to vote on consolidation in 1967.

If only the city and its independent electric utility, JEA, had started back then to chip away at the number of overhead power lines.

For example, if the city and JEA had come up with a plan in 1967 to put just 2 percent of the residential lines underground each year, we'd have all of the work done by now.

Instead, the city required new development to place power lines underground — but it did very little about the existing overhead lines.

The second major issue involves the large number of septic tanks in urban areas where you would assume there would be water and sewer lines.

Northwest Jacksonville is especially hard hit by this lack of infrastructure. And it’s affecting business.

Who’s at fault for the lack of action?

A City Council task force on consolidation led by Council Member Lori Boyer addressed the issue.

“As we heard from representatives of JEA and the city, it was clear that neither took responsibility for fulfillment of these promises,” the task force reported.

That’s bureaucratic double-talk. City Council members from Northwest Jacksonville have every right and duty to demand action.

In addition, they ought to be joined and supported by all of the at-large council members.

Ideas on septic tanks

One count from the Health Department shows 1,465 businesses in Duval County with septic tanks, and 523 of them are located within the boundaries of the Northwest Jacksonville Economic Development area.

This development area was established in the 1980s to help foster business in the core city. It has had a checkered past, however, with some businesses failing despite city grants.

A group of City Council members are suggesting a new use for some of the grant money.

Some septic tanks are failing, resulting in complaints from neighbors to the Health Department.

The idea is to use $1 million of trust fund money to provide grants to replace septic tanks to businesses that meet certain criteria in order to prevent them from moving.

A draft ordinance presented at a recent meeting lists a number of criteria that would need to be met. Here are a few of them:

• The business must be located in the boundaries of the Jacksonville Economic Development area.

• The business must have received a letter from the Health Department within the last 12 months that its septic tank posed a threat to a neighborhood's health and safety.

• The business must be current in paying its property taxes.

• The septic tank must be approved by the Public Works Department.

There was some discussion over the size of the grants. The draft ordinance referred to $15,000 but several council members suggested it should be more.

If grants are given at $20,000 each, that means the $1 million would fund 50 businesses.

Also there was some discussion over how the grant program should be administered.

Ideally it should be simple enough to use but thorough enough to guarantee that the grant money is spent wisely.

One proposal from Council Member Katrina Brown would establish a list of pre-qualified vendors that could bid on the septic tank business.

Council Member Garrett Dennis, meanwhile, noted that grants following the recent hurricanes apparently were administered successfully — so there is no need to reinvent the wheel.

Extend sewer, water lines

On the issue of sewer and water lines, Council Member Reggie Brown has been vocal in calling for the city to develop a sustainable plan to extend that infrastructure to overlooked areas.

Certainly such a plan would include extending lines along major business thoroughfares, such as U.S. 1.

As Jacksonville marks its 50th anniversary dates of consolidation this year and in 2019, a new wave of elected representatives need to make fulfilling these old promises part of their platforms.

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